Monday, April 2, 2007

The Glass Devil by Helene Tursten


Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues in Goteborg, Sweden are investigating the deaths of Jacob Schyttelius and his parents--Sten (a pastor) and Elsa. They were murdered in their respective houses a few hours apart. Satanic symbols are also found at both crime scenes. The only surviving member of the family, daughter Rebecka, lives in London and works as a computer consultant. Irene first believes that family might have been killed because they were trying to find some satanists who burned down a local church. Irene then goes to London to interview Rebecka, who is in bad psychological shape. Rebecka can hardly communicate with her, but Irene feels that she holds the key to her family's fate. Will she be able to break through? I enjoy this mystery series because I like the main character Irene, who was a judo champion in her youth and lives with her chef husband and twin 18-year-old daughters. I also appreciate Tursten's descriptions of the internal workings of a police department and its officers. To me, this series is more like English police procedurals than any other Scandinavian mystery series I read.

1 comment:

Peter Rozovsky said...

That was a good observation about the book's similarity to English police procedurals. I think Irene Huss makes some observations that a male police officer might not make, though! (I've just posted about The Glass Devil at http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2007/04/glass-devil-helene-tursten.html

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